Yobs dump rubbish next to Sunderland recycling centre

Waste left at Sainsbury's Recycling Centre in Silksworth, Sunderland.

Household rubbish including cardboard boxes, bottles, wood carpet cuttings - and even an ironing board - were left next to bottle banks at Sainsbury’s in Silksworth.

The waste has since been removed, with council bosses calling on those responsible to dispose of items properly.

The incident comes after new figures showed that the worst areas in Sunderland for complaints over fly-tipping were in Millfield, Hendon, Pallion and Barnes.It follows the launched of the Echo’s Clean Streets campaign which aims to encourage more pride in our city and put a spotlight on cleaning up the streets and green spaces.

Since April 2017, Sunderland City Council has adopted a new environmental policy in response to councillors calling for a tougher stance against litter bugs.

As a result, enforcement results have rocketed with a mixture of education notices, fines and prosecutions for waste offences across Sunderland.

Since April 2017, about 61 fixed-penalty notices were issued for fly-tipping offences and there have been 11 successful prosecutions.

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In that time there have been 8,985 environmental crime investigations in the city, which Environmental Services Manager at the council, Nicky Rowland, described as “phenomenal”.

It has seen the number of investigations more than double from the period 2014/2017, when there was 4,141.

Between April and December in 2018, nearly 7,000 complaints were also lodged with the council around “dumping of waste”.

In future, illegal waste collected by council will be weighed to calculate the “cost of fly-tipping” to the authority.

It comes as new legal powers to seize and crush vehicles used for fly-tipping in Sunderland could soon be put to the test.

The powers came in last April and allow Sunderland City Council to seize vehicles used in waste transport or deposit offences to help tackle environmental crime.

Following the dumping of the waste in Silksworth a spokesman for Sunderland City Council said: “The waste has been cleared up.

“It’s disappointing how some people cannot make the effort to clean-up after themselves and take very simple actions and responsibilities to dispose of their waste properly.

“If anybody has information about fly-tipping they should contact the council immediately on 520 5550.”